On October 3rd the public consultation on the future of Primary Care Sevices in the Gloucestershire finished, this followed on from the separate staff consultation earlier in the year.

Yesterday NHS Gloucestershire released a report stating that the “overwhelming majority of respondents, from all groups, expressed a preference for Option 1 – the establishment of a new NHS Trust.”

96% of respondents to the NHS Gloucestershire survey preferred Option 1, 3% preferred Option 2 (a tender process open to private companies) and 1% were undecided. There were 2,564 responses in total.

They also note the receipt of 6,530 signatures on a petition supporting option 1.

1,482 of 1,628 staff who work in the services in question voted for the standalone NHS Trust (Option 1) as their first preference. This represents  91% of those who returned forms (and the majority (51.17 %) of the overall workforce (2896 forms were issued)). Only five staff voted for the option of partnering with a private sector organisation as their first preference.

The Board of NHS Gloucestershire are meeting next Monday, 15th October, at 10am to announce whether they will be pursing Option 1 (a standalone NHS Trust) or Option 2 (competitive tendering open to private companies) for our local community health services.

We encourage supporters of the campaign to Keep the NHS Public to attend a lobby of the meeting at 8.45am if they can (the board have said that the result of the surveys will not be their only consideration). The public can attend the meeting itself, as space is limited you need to give notice by emailing: simeon.foreman1@nhs.net.

The meeting will be held at Sanger House, 5220 Valiant Court, Gloucester Business Park, Brockworth, Gloucester, Monday 15th October at 10am.